Need Some Nails? No, I Need A Closet Makeover

On Saturday when I went to find finishing nails for my pretty new tray, I came upon a closet that I just couldn't avoid for another moment. I found my nails instantly, but looking at that closet just pushed me over the edge.

I am pretty organized with my storage and just cleaned this closet last summer. But with all the DIY gear, car and bike care junk, cleaning stuff, tools and storage kept in these shelves it had gotten a little out of hand. So I emptied everything out and regrouped everything together.

I was totally annoyed with myself to find out how many foam craft brushes, sheets of sand paper, drill bits and tiny paint rollers and handles I have bought over the years. As I moved down every shelf I kept finding more and more. Note to self: STOP buying tools and brushes every time you start a project.

I grabbed my painters tape and labeled every shelf section and put small things in shoe boxes or plastic bins. I stacked all the paint cans in one corner. Put all the different kinds of glue into a plastic zip up bag. I also took out tons of rags that had been put here over time and put them all in one bag and hung them in the front closet so they are easy to see and use.

Everything now has a home. And when I got done with the top three shelves, you can see what I had left-a practically empty third shelf. Most of the stuff on the bottom shelf that you can see are things I was using for the project, my marker, scissors, etc.

In a perfect world I would own a label maker. In my usually perfectionist mode I would've at least cut the edges of the painters tape to make it look better. I didn't feel like this project required too much craziness on my part, so I did it quick and dirty....Okay, let's be honest, in a perfect world, these shelves would be pretty, all this stuff would not be in the same space and I wouldn't have popcorn on my ceilings and vertical blinds on some of my windows. But let's not get too depressing here, ha-ha.

Once I'd done these three top shelves, I popped down to the lower three shelves and gave them a quick clean up too. Everything in the bottom shelves is big stuff, which is much easier and happier to deal with than organizing tons of small nails, screws, hooks, paint brushes, rollers and drill bits.

It was good to go through this stuff too because I found a big bag of shells I didn't know I had. Great since I want to incorporate shells into the wedding decor and was anticipating buying shells soon. Love the freebies. Excellent.

It is so nice to quickly and easily see what I have now. No more buying stuff I don't actually need. It feels good to have everything in its place and with its mates. It also means I have space to move some things to the bottom of the top three shelves here. In a small apartment with lots going on, every inch of storage space matters. We shall see how long it stays this way. But at least I have a plan now so that the next time I clean up I won't have to figure out where everything would best go. I also liked seeing what I could accomplish in less than an hour on a project no one really ever wants to do.

Does this happen to you too? Have you been stopped in your tracks lately by a house project you just couldn't stand looking at for one more minute? What did you organize and how good did you feel when you were done? Did you find anything you'd been looking for or didn't know you had? Talk to me people, I would love to know I'm not the lone crazy woman, haa-haa.

I'll be back with another post this later this morning. Hope it's a great Tuesday for you!

all images by kalanicut